1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to the field of managing electronic messaging over a communication network, more particularly, a method for managing the reception of mails and filtering unsolicited and undesired (spam) mails.
2. Background of the Invention
Unsolicited spam mails have been a major problem for many mail readers, who have to spend their valuable time in reading and sorting incoming mails.
It is preferable to have a way to separate the spam mails from other useful mails and optionally block, according to the wishes of a user, other unsolicited and unauthorized bulk mails from reaching the user's mailbox.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,447,744 and 7,194,515, issued respectively on Nov. 4, 2008 and Mar. 20, 2007, describe a method and a system to send a follow-up challenge message to a sender in order to verify the authenticity of a previously sent mail message. After sending out the mail, the sender may have already left, or failed to immediately attend to the follow-up request for a confirmation of the mail. There is a possibility of a delay in the processing of the mail by a busy server system. The mail would often be delayed by a broken and busy Internet connection. The delay in processing a mail would sometimes make the receipt of the mail outdated. A mail may become irrelevant when it is not timely received by a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,692, issued Jul. 24, 2001, discloses a method which provides selected senders with a valid passcode, so that a mail can be delivered to a user. The passcode contained in a mail message is checked against the user's database to see if there is a match. However, other than a special case in which a sender makes a formal request to the user for a permission to send a mail, the method does not describe in detail a way for an unknown sender to obtain a valid passcode.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,233, issued May 8, 2007, describes a digital signature that is embedded in a mail content for transmission. An application software is used to determine the priority of the mail if a signature is present in the mail. A mail is filtered according to the asserted access levels encoded in the digital signature. A mail is delivered to a recipient having equivalent or higher access level as indicated in the digital signature of the mail.
Some of the proposed mail servers disclosed in the prior art have included a passcode key in the header of a mail. The passcode key may be inadvertently disclosed or compromised during data transmission. It is a time-consuming effort for a user to manage and reissue the passcode key to all interested individuals.
The methods proposed in the prior art devices are usually applied to a mail server at a receiving end of the mails. A two-way communicating scheme between a plurality of mail systems is preferable to overcome the limitations and problems in the prior art mail systems.